A draft of the G20 final declaration shows that the states apparently cannot agree on concrete climate measures. Even the term “immediate action” has reportedly been removed.

It should have been a strong signal from the heads of state and government for the world climate summit in Glasgow: Now, however, the efforts to take concrete measures for climate protection by the G20 countries seemingly fails to set the tone. In a draft of the summit’s final communiqué, the group of major economic powers can apparently not agree on specific goals for climate protection.

Originally intended targets and specific commitments to combat dangerous global warming have been removed from earlier versions. Not even an agreement on “immediate action”, as it was called in an earlier draft, appears in writing in the document.

Moreover, despite negotiations late into the night, the states have not yet agreed on including the 1.5-degree target as a common objective in the final declaration.

There was also no progress with the goal of CO2 neutrality. The target date initially set for 2050 is now more generally referred to as “mid-century”. The group of economic powers plays a vital role because it is responsible for around 80 per cent of global greenhouse gases.

The two-day Summit of Heads of State or Government ends this Sunday in the Italian capital, while the two-week Climate Change Meeting (COP26) begins in Scotland.

From Monday, around 200 countries will discuss how mankind can curb accelerated global warming to a tolerable level for two weeks. The aim is to set the previous climate targets of the individual countries higher. A preliminary agreement by the G20 in Rome was considered all the more critical.

Image by Paul Kagame (Flickr)/Attribution 2.0 Generic (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)